Amex introduces ‘fixed price’ Membership Rewards redemptions at Melia hotels

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In a couple of weeks time I will be down in Madrid, taking advantage of the free night in a 5-star hotel which Melia has offered to all UK Amex Platinum cardholders.

This seems to be part of a wider deal between Melia Hotels and American Express. Without any notification at all to cardholders, Amex has also introduced the ability to redeem your American Express Membership Rewards points for nights at Melia hotels.

What is interesting is that the redemption rate is fixed in terms of ‘points per night’. There is therefore a good opportunity to get real value from your points if they will give you a room on an expensive night.

Melia American Express Membership Rewards

Here are the options: (if this link does not bring up Melia automatically, search for Melia in the box at the top of the page on the Amex Membership Rewards site)

Melia hotel – 11,000 points per night

Gran Melia hotel – 14,000 points per night

Paradisus hotel – 17,500 points per night

Sol hotel – 5,500 points per night

Tryp hotel – 7,500 points per night

For all of these offers, you need to ring (UK number) to enquire about availability. You can book up to three nights per booking.

The good news is that you can ring and book first before ordering your vouchers from Amex. You therefore have no risk of doing a transfer and then not being able to find a room.

The Gran Melia Fenix in Madrid, where I will be soon, was Euro 220 per night when I booked. Assuming that they would have let me use points, I would have got over 1p per point of value, which is a very, very good use of Membership Rewards points.

You can find full details of the Melia hotel properties you can book by visiting their website.

How to get MeliaRewards Gold status from American Express (December 2021)

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE MeliaRewards Gold status for as long as they hold the card? It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Hilton Honors Gold and Radisson Rewards Gold status.

We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

You can discover the benefits of MeliaRewards Gold status on the Melia website here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

(Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

American Express Membership Rewards, MeliaRewards

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Neilc says:

30 Sep30 September 07:43

I thought this might happen! Any idea on cancellation policy and how this would work if booking longer than 3 days? Is it only available on standard rooms?
- Raffles says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 10:00
  
  I imagine it is only base level rooms. The voucher is valid for 12 months, so I imagine you can cancel your booking and save your voucher for another trip. The vouchers cannot be turned back into MR points, however.
Alex says:

30 Sep30 September 09:42

Also, there is no mention of occupancy. Any idea whether children require a supplement?
- Rob says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 09:49
  
  Presumably depends on hotel by hotel policies. See what they say about a rollaway charge when you do a dummy cash booking for a particular hotel.
Rob says:

30 Sep30 September 11:26

How do you get Melia Gold? It isn’t on the Plat website as a partner programme.
- Doug Gerhardt says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 12:48
  
  Also came back from a stay at the Fenix.
  They said the gold upgrade was part of Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts membership.
Andy says:

30 Sep30 September 14:59

Raffles,

Do you know what category the ME London would fall into?
- Rob says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 17:21
  
  I don’t think its included – ME is run as a separate brand and doesn’t appear on the Amex site.
  - Andy says:
    
    30 Sep30 September 19:52
    
    Shame, went there as my free Amex night and it was awesome
Alan says:

30 Sep30 September 17:19

I swapped some of the items on the menu that I didn’t fancy, they were pretty accommodating!

They mentioned Gold Melia Reward status to me as well at check-in but I’ve not seen any change in my account in the month following check-out – has anyone seen this status upgrade hit their account? As I only stayed for one night and incidental spend doesn’t accrue points they stay has never shown up on my account – perhaps you need to be paying for the stay for the status upgrade to be processed??
Shaun says:

30 Sep30 September 17:39

Off topic, but I’ve just come back from the Radisson Blu in Madrid which was very well situated and very pleasant. Managed to make use of the 2 for 1 on nights for gold members for the first time ever (making my first two nights €70 Euro each!), and used points for the additional nights. As is the norm, I got an upgrade without having to ask, plus free breakfast, due to my concierge status.
Trickster says:

30 Sep30 September 20:00

Hi

Do you have the number to call to check availability?
I just called (gold card line) and he was unable to do this for me. He went off to speak to someone and mentioned he’d spoken to the Centurion people and the way to check was on the Amex Travel site.

Cheers.
- Trickster says:
  
  30 Sep30 September 20:04
  
  Replying to myself, I think I’ve just realised you mean call melia. Is this the case?
trickster says:

1 Oct1 October 08:54

Apologies for the dumb questions in previous posts. I’ve now fathomed how this works.

I spoke to Melia (UK number which goes through to Spain), who confirmed there was availability at one of the hotels I was interested in, and they booked the room for us. In order to do this you have to have a Melia Rewards account. So if you do not they’ll take you through setting one up. You can then order the voucher(s) from Amex, and you take them to the hotel to pay.

My situation has been slightly complicated by the fact that I want to use this route to pay for accommodation for relatives. Melia were suggesting that the booking needs be against my account, and the name should match the vouchers issued from Amex. This isn’t exactly what Amex said, but seems reasonable. Therefore, I’m waiting for a callback from Melia today after they’ve spoken to the hotel to explain that the guests staying be a different name. I hope this works out ok.